Mahoning County Probate Judge Jack Durkin was invited by Chief Justice Marueen O’Conor to an eight state delegation on opioid addiction in August. Durkin says since he began on the bench, the average drug addict has changed.

“When we first started about 19 years ago, the drug of choice was crack or cocaine, the average age was 35. Fast forward 18 years, the drug of choice is opiates, it’s heroin and the average age was dropped to 23.”

He says children need to be educated against the dangers of drug addiction in the same way they are educated against the dangers of smoking.

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